起信論疏筆削記 1.59

1.59

"Middling and lower..." and so forth is the second [part]: skillfully catering to the conditions of faculties. That is, the kinds of beings of middling faculties and below all attain awakening and entry into the Buddha's insight and vision through this treatise's opening and showing. If explained in terms of stages, awakening corresponds to faith and understanding, while entry corresponds to practice and realization. If according to Tiantai, combining opening and showing, these correspond collectively to the forty stages of persons of the Complete Teaching—namely the abidings, practices, dedications, and grounds—matching opening, showing, awakening, and entering in this order. Here, by using the profound to encompass the shallow, it says "awakening and entry." "Zhe yi" (者矣) are concluding particles. However, this phrasing "middling and lower" does not mean pointing to the Hinayāna in contrast to the Mahāyāna as "middling and lower"; for among the faculties of the complete and sudden Mahāyāna there are naturally superior, middling, and lower distinctions, and here it refers to the middling and lower of the complete faculties. Just as the meaning of the three faculties in the *Yuanjue jing* is precisely identical to this. Here it speaks of the middling and lower awakening and entering in deference to superior faculties, who are accommodated by the extensive treatise.